The Seafarers

THE SEAFARERS
Introductory Note and Review by Shoshana Milgram

THE SEAFARERS, a novella written by Nevil Shute in the years
1946-47 and published now for the first time, dramatizes one of
his most important themes: the life-giving joy of productive
work. His own life story exemplifies this very theme. Shute's
autobiography, SLIDE RULE (1953), deals with the manifold
achievements of his first career (as an aeronautical engineer and
as the founder of his own aircraft firm) and with the beginning
years of his second career, as a writer. The epigraph to that
book cites Robert Louis Stevenson: "the true success is to
labour." Shute thus calls attention to the rewards of goal-
oriented mental and physical effort, as measured not only after
the attainment of the goal, but at every stage of the struggle.
In THE SEAFARERS, Shute concentrated his considerable powers on
analyzing that "true success"--showing how it can be won and how,
even if lost, it can be regained.

The story line is elegantly simple. As World War II winds
down, Donald Wolfe (a senior naval lieutenant) and Jean Porter
(a boat's crew Wren) meet when he brings his motor gunboat to
Portland harbor to be dismantled and disarmed. They admire each
other's dedication and cheerful competence; their first date is
promising, and both hope for a romance. But when they meet again
in peacetime, away from the sea, they seem to have much less in
common. Without the work they love, their differences are
magnified. Puzzled and disappointed, they part, regretfully--but
not permanently.

This book is Shute's second version of THE SEAFARERS,
written not long after the first, with some enhancements in style
and characterization, but no changes in the story line. Although
Shute did not choose to publish either version of THE SEAFARERS,
he returned to several of its elements in two other works: BLIND
UNDERSTANDING, left incomplete in 1948 and never published, and
REQUIEM FOR A WREN (known in the U.S. as THE BREAKING WAVE),
published in 1955.

All three titles feature a capable, matter-of-fact young
woman who has joined the Wrens fresh from school. During the
war, she has developed skills and confidence. When her war
service ends, however, she is adrift. The versions are
significantly different in three main ways, all of them to the
advantage of THE SEAFARERS.

To begin with, the heroines of BLIND UNDERSTANDING and
REQUIEM FOR A WREN, each named Janet, serve as Ordnance Wrens;
each shoots down a plane carrying seven men, who may not in fact
belong to the enemy side. The identity of the men killed is
never established; it is suggested that Janet committed an error
of judgment. Although Shute does not make Janet unequivocally
guilty, she blames herself for the seven deaths, and also for the
subsequent deaths of her father and her fiance, which she
attributes to divine retribution. Shute left unresolved the
story of the heroine of BLIND UNDERSTANDING; the story of the
heroine of REQUIEM FOR A WREN ends in tragedy.

In THE SEAFARERS, by contrast, the heroine's war work is an
unambiguous good. She has learned how to repair and manage
boats; she solves practical problems. Jean never has to cope
with the possibility of tragic error that is a central focus of
the other texts. She has nothing on her conscience, no mysteries
to unravel. She mourns no dead. Her skill is an unquestioned
asset, and her life is triumphantly un-tragic.

Another feature unique to THE SEAFARERS is the
characterization of Donald Wolfe, a heroic counterpart to the
heroine. In the other versions, the heroine's fiance dies during
the war, and the man who approaches her later (Robert Prentice in
BLIND UNDERSTANDING, Alan Duncan in REQUIEM FOR A WREN) is less
than direct in his courtship of her. But in THE SEAFARERS, Shute
creates a character who not only loves and admires the heroine,
but who seeks and finds the solution to the problem they
share in peacetime.

The solution to the problem, for Donald and Jean, requires
finding in peacetime the purposefulness that was automatically
present during the war. THE SEAFARERS identifies productive work
as the cardinal value of the war years, for both Jean and Donald.
The emphasis on work is the third distinctive feature of THE
SEAFARERS, and the most important. BLIND UNDERSTANDING and
REQUIEM FOR A WREN, by contrast, stress the end of youth, the
loss of unrepeatable opportunities.

By focusing on work instead of on youth, Jean Porter and
Donald Wolfe are able to find in their post-war lives the
purposefulness that inspired their war-time happiness. In war,
when they worked hard to defeat the enemy, their efforts were
richly rewarded--not only by the ultimate military victory, but
by the ongoing satisfaction of the struggle (the skills they
developed, the challenges they assumed). In order to earn such
rewards in peacetime, they must discover for themselves new, and
significant, goals.

Turning back the clock, returning to one's youth, serving
as a Wren when there is nothing for a Wren to do--all are
impossible. But the desire of Donald and Jean--for peacetime
work as rewarding as their military service--is open to
fulfillment.

That fulfillment, to be sure, is neither quick nor easy.
Initially, they follow the paths of least resistance. Donald
becomes an insurance agent, like his father, and Jean signs up
for secretarial training. The result of their passivity
in the selection of goals is predictable. Not only does their
work fail to match their abilities, but they have not discovered,
or even attempted to discover, a long-range or large-scale
purpose comparable to what they were given by the war.

Their arranged meeting in London, months after the war, is a
disaster of surprises, misunderstandings, and disappointments.
Yet Shute, by making the reader privy to their parallel thoughts,
shows that they have more in common than they realize. When
they part, we--but not they--know it is not forever.

The lovers are irreplaceable to each other, a fact that
Jean, at least, sees intensely when she believes they have said
goodbye. "In years to come," Jean reflects, "when time had eased
the sharp grief that had come upon her now, there might be other
men, but she knew that there would never be another man like
Donald." To lose each other would be to miss their best chance
of happiness. They do not miss their chance.

In the following chapters, both Donald and Jean find
temporary assignments of boat work, tasks other people consider
difficult or even impossible. With his trademark descriptive
style--understated, detailed, and concrete--Shute makes their
endeavors credible, dramatic, and inspiring. They do, in
essence, what they did during the war: in the face of danger and
discomfort, they exert the mental and physical effort required to
achieve important objectives. When Donald and Jean face their
challenges, with courage and intelligence, they are--without
knowing it--journeying back to each other.

When they find each other again, appropriately "messing
about with boats," Jean devises a business plan that will benefit
them both. As Wolfe and Porter, Ltd., they convert and sell
boats; as Donald and Jean, they live happily ever after. The
"true success" of their work, ever increasing in range and scale,
will exemplify the epigraph of SLIDE RULE.

The joy of purposeful work, to be sure, is fundamental to
Shute. It underlies not only his own experience as an engineer-
novelist with two careers, but also many of his other books,
notably RUINED CITY (1938) and ROUND THE BEND (1951). ON THE
BEACH (1957) spotlights the power of purposeful work to give
meaning to life even when all human life is coming to an end.

THE SEAFARERS is shorter than Shute's published novels. It
is uncomplicated by the twists, mysteries, and subplots that
enrich his other books. But its simple directness is no defect.
Shute gives Jean and Donald, or allows them to give themselves,
the only paradise worth having: one joint project after another,
in their burgeoning business. They pursue, together, a
meaningful life. The dignity of the book eloquently crystallizes
the dignity possible to a human being.

In THE SEAFARERS, Nevil Shute celebrates the tenacity,
intelligence, and drive--in Jean, in Donald, in human nature--
that make possible the world of work.